Friday, 16 October 2009
Thursday, 15 October 2009
The Best Houseparty Ever!
‘Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.’ John 14:1-3
Imagine if Heaven was like a hotel, or a restaurant, or a trampoline – that it has a limited space capacity. That somehow it already has a limited number of rooms reserved in advance for all the religious people, or practically perfect people, or morally and politically correct people or the goodie-two shoes: as a consequence everyone else is shunted aside, as there just isn’t enough room.
But Jesus has ensured that there are ‘many’ rooms, that ANYONE willing to accept his invitation will not be let down or disappointed once they reach God’s home. The God who formed us and breathed life into us, and loves us with a love surpassing all love we’ll ever experience. No one who trusts in Him will be turned away.
If this God loves us so much, that He’d let His only perfect Son be beaten, abused and crucified, for us who only ignore and sadden Him, and live our lives as if our Creator does not exist, so that we who acknowledge this can know God personally… So that we will not undergo an existence after this one completely without the presence of the God of all good…
If Jesus willingly suffered (John 18:11) for the world’s sin, why would he lie about this? Why would he have deceived his anxious disciples who were fearfully listening to Him? Why would he deceive us now, who still urgently need His message? And furthermore, if we cannot get to Heaven by the good things we have done, how else will we get to the best house party this world has ever seen?
We can only get there through Jesus – He alone has the power to free us from this world’s chains and lead us home. And not only after we die but when He returns, in all His majesty and splendour, so everyone on earth will see the Saviour at last, will He take all who follow Him away with Him.
And from then on we will always remain with Him, in His house, as his adopted heirs and always be fully satisfied and completely happy in a new perfect world.
Imagine if Heaven was like a hotel, or a restaurant, or a trampoline – that it has a limited space capacity. That somehow it already has a limited number of rooms reserved in advance for all the religious people, or practically perfect people, or morally and politically correct people or the goodie-two shoes: as a consequence everyone else is shunted aside, as there just isn’t enough room.
But Jesus has ensured that there are ‘many’ rooms, that ANYONE willing to accept his invitation will not be let down or disappointed once they reach God’s home. The God who formed us and breathed life into us, and loves us with a love surpassing all love we’ll ever experience. No one who trusts in Him will be turned away.
If this God loves us so much, that He’d let His only perfect Son be beaten, abused and crucified, for us who only ignore and sadden Him, and live our lives as if our Creator does not exist, so that we who acknowledge this can know God personally… So that we will not undergo an existence after this one completely without the presence of the God of all good…
If Jesus willingly suffered (John 18:11) for the world’s sin, why would he lie about this? Why would he have deceived his anxious disciples who were fearfully listening to Him? Why would he deceive us now, who still urgently need His message? And furthermore, if we cannot get to Heaven by the good things we have done, how else will we get to the best house party this world has ever seen?
We can only get there through Jesus – He alone has the power to free us from this world’s chains and lead us home. And not only after we die but when He returns, in all His majesty and splendour, so everyone on earth will see the Saviour at last, will He take all who follow Him away with Him.
And from then on we will always remain with Him, in His house, as his adopted heirs and always be fully satisfied and completely happy in a new perfect world.
Saturday, 12 September 2009
Friends Forever...
‘You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.’
John 15:14-15
Friends… where would we be without at least one? Friends whom we can talk, laugh, joke, cry, have fun with? Whom we can trust to be there when we need them? Friends who know us well enough to make us feel better when we have bad days? Friends who stand up for us in situations when we are and not around? And friends who are far from fair-weather ones – who are there with us through the hard as well as the easy times?
If we are followers of the God-man, it’s so easy to only think of Jesus as a Saviour: who, through his grace and love for us doomed to eternity without Him, took our punishment for ignoring our Creator completely and utterly on that cross. No amount of trying to be good or religious or worthy in our own eyes could ever cross the great divide between us and the God of all things, who cannot stand the fact that our hearts and bodies have rebelled against Him.
It’s so easy to acknowledge that we’ve been saved by God by repenting and asking Him for help to turn away from our rebellion (called sin), but then ignore Him for most of the day without talking to Him at all.
But why would God send His only precious Son, who has always obeyed Him, to die an excruciating death in human form?
He wants us to be his friends.
Friends? With the God of the Universe? The friend who’s always there? The friend who always cares (1 Peter 5:7)? The friend who never forsakes us, or dumps us for someone else or betrays our trust?
The friend who knew our days before we were in our mother’s womb (Psalm 139:16)? The friend who calls each planet, star and galaxy by name? The friend we can always talk to, at any time, with the guarantee that He will always hear us, with no need for phone calls, letters, e-mails, texting and facebook.
The friend whom we can fully confide in and knows our heart’s darkest secrets before we ourselves are fully aware of them. The friend who’s given us His word and the gift of having it in the vernacular, so we can read and learn from Him. The friend who’s planned Heaven’s best party for us, with no need for an after party. The friend who doesn’t judge us on looks.
The friend who lets us in on a big secret millions more people in this world need to hear and read in the Bible for themselves – God’s command to all to repent (Acts 17:30): to acknowledge that we cannot get to Heaven by being good or religious, ask Jesus to take away everything we’ve done which has made Him sad and to fix our eyes on following Him, with the help of the Holy Spirit forever placed inside us.
The friend who died for us, defeated death for us and is coming back soon to crush all traces of sorrow on this Earth once and for all.
What a friend we have in Jesus!
John 15:14-15
Friends… where would we be without at least one? Friends whom we can talk, laugh, joke, cry, have fun with? Whom we can trust to be there when we need them? Friends who know us well enough to make us feel better when we have bad days? Friends who stand up for us in situations when we are and not around? And friends who are far from fair-weather ones – who are there with us through the hard as well as the easy times?
If we are followers of the God-man, it’s so easy to only think of Jesus as a Saviour: who, through his grace and love for us doomed to eternity without Him, took our punishment for ignoring our Creator completely and utterly on that cross. No amount of trying to be good or religious or worthy in our own eyes could ever cross the great divide between us and the God of all things, who cannot stand the fact that our hearts and bodies have rebelled against Him.
It’s so easy to acknowledge that we’ve been saved by God by repenting and asking Him for help to turn away from our rebellion (called sin), but then ignore Him for most of the day without talking to Him at all.
But why would God send His only precious Son, who has always obeyed Him, to die an excruciating death in human form?
He wants us to be his friends.
Friends? With the God of the Universe? The friend who’s always there? The friend who always cares (1 Peter 5:7)? The friend who never forsakes us, or dumps us for someone else or betrays our trust?
The friend who knew our days before we were in our mother’s womb (Psalm 139:16)? The friend who calls each planet, star and galaxy by name? The friend we can always talk to, at any time, with the guarantee that He will always hear us, with no need for phone calls, letters, e-mails, texting and facebook.
The friend whom we can fully confide in and knows our heart’s darkest secrets before we ourselves are fully aware of them. The friend who’s given us His word and the gift of having it in the vernacular, so we can read and learn from Him. The friend who’s planned Heaven’s best party for us, with no need for an after party. The friend who doesn’t judge us on looks.
The friend who lets us in on a big secret millions more people in this world need to hear and read in the Bible for themselves – God’s command to all to repent (Acts 17:30): to acknowledge that we cannot get to Heaven by being good or religious, ask Jesus to take away everything we’ve done which has made Him sad and to fix our eyes on following Him, with the help of the Holy Spirit forever placed inside us.
The friend who died for us, defeated death for us and is coming back soon to crush all traces of sorrow on this Earth once and for all.
What a friend we have in Jesus!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
